Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) collects and processes information from across the UV, visible, and infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. A hyperspectral imager images a band of spectral information at each point in a scene. HSI is frequently employed to increase the depth of information in a scene's image, and thereby increase the image's visual contrast beyond what can be recorded with a conventional monochrome or color camera. This enhanced contrast can be used to detect hard to find or camouflaged objects obscured by visual noise; it can also aid in materials identification. It can be used to assess detailed information about the state of a subject, such as the ripeness of a piece of fruit. Well-known applications of HSI abound for domains as diverse as industrial and agricultural sorting, remote sensing for agriculture and defense, threat identification, and even medicine.
The advent of smartphone technology has provided powerful, mobile platforms that a significant fraction of the world's population carries on their person at most times. There is a trend toward increasing the number and types of sensors present on smartphones, and the computing power of these phones is correspondingly increasing. Smartphones already include multiple image sensors, but they are not currently thought of as candidates for HSI sensors because of the prohibitive size and cost of existing HSI technologies.